


The Flaw

by wednesday



Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic (Video Game)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-11
Updated: 2019-05-11
Packaged: 2020-02-04 19:59:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18611488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wednesday/pseuds/wednesday
Summary: This wasn't the first time he woke up restrained after being knocked out by an explosion.





	The Flaw

**Author's Note:**

  * For [flirtoptionthree](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flirtoptionthree/gifts).



 

The last thing he saw was the explosion.  


He woke up to the smell of charred synthplast and the feeling of cool metal cuffs on his wrists. Not the first time Theron woke up tied up after being blown up, but - as before - he really hoped this one would be the last. His head hurt too much to manage a controlled response, so whoever had him must have already known he was awake.  


Damn, the concussive force must have knocked out his implants. They weren’t fried, but rebooting would take some time.  


“So, agent Shan,” an unfamiliar and decidedly imperial-sounding voice paused for a second, “An interesting choice. Is it meant to be some code for you being Force-sensitive?”  


Whoever was speaking - and Theron really, really hoped it was one of the gang members who happened to be from imperial space - completed his slow circle around Theron’s chair and stopped in front of him.  


Well, he wasn’t surprised at his luck, just disappointed.  


In the faint light stood a sith, lightsaber, crazy shiny eyes and all. How the kriff had everyone involved in the operations on-planet missed a sith? Theron smiled blandly and stayed silent. A sith might be able to tell, if he lied outright, and his head was ringing too much to come up with an effective deflection on the spot.  


“Hmm, no, you send all of those to the Jedi, don’t you?”  


Theron stayed silent and carefully mapped out the restraints around his hands. What kind of amateur restrained people’s hands out of sight, anyway? Not that he was complaining.  


“Tell me, agent Shan, where is the data you downloaded before the blast?” the sith asked and leaned forward, close enough to be menacing and not close enough to give Theron a chance to do any damage. Maybe not an amateur after all.  


“That depends on how much it’s worth to you. Because if you plan to kill me, I didn’t even get through the primary security layers.”  


The sith looked at him consideringly for a long minute, then stepped behind Theron so unexpectedly that Theron almost didn’t manage to hide away the spike he’d been trying to use on the gravi-cuff lock. The sound of a lightsaber igniting and a faint red glow startled Theron.  


“Whoa, whoa, let’s not--”  


With a hiss and a soft thud the cuffs fell to the ground.  


The sith stepped back into view, and Theron rubbed his aching left wrist, but didn’t get up from his chair. Being released from his restraints could end up so much worse, for so many reasons. Theron didn’t have any backup for this part, and all comm signals were monitored in this district, so he had no way to contact his team.  


“We’ll compromise,” the sith said, “You’ll take me to the secure data storage whose coordinates you downloaded, and I won’t kill you.”  


Theron could easily barter with the data, because nothing in there was dangerous to the Republic, only the people he was gathering intel on. Having a sith with him would even make breaking into the facility easier. The question was, could he trust a sith to keep his word.  


“Sounds good to me,” Theron agreed with a smile, and started listing all the escape routes he might have access to.  


“Well then, let us not waste time,” the sith said, and held his hand out to Theron.  


Theron took it warily, and was pulled up with enough force that he ended up chest to chest with the sith. Or his face to the sith’s chest, because of course the sith had the force and physical strength over Theron.  


“It will be a pleasure working with you, agent Shan.” The sith released him and stepped back, then turned away and maneuvered around the broken furniture towards the exit. Well, trusting or stupid enough to turn his back on Theron. Or confident, which would be very bad.  


Theron’s implants finished rebooting and started blocking out the headache, and it cleared his head just enough to realize there shouldn’t have been any way for the sith to know his name.  


He followed the sith out to the landing pad anyway.  


The sith stopped at a Razer model speeder and looked at Theron.  


“So, how is this going to work? I drive to the coordinates, you follow me?” The sith looked amused - not generally Theron’s favorite sith expression - and yeah, it figured he wasn’t stupid enough to go for it.  


“Get on the speeder,” the sith said, face still amused, but his voice low enough to sound like a threat. So Theron got on the speeder and expected some kind of master lock spike to be installed on it. That was not what happened. The sith got on the speeder behind Theron, which, whoa - he’d thought that thing back inside had been too much touching.  


The sith’s chest was plastered to Theron’s back and their thighs pressed together. The sith gripped the speeder controls right next to where Theron was holding on to them.  


“Lead the way, agent Shan,” the sith purred, his mouth right next to Theron’s ear.  


“This model was definitely not made for two people.” Theron started the speeder up and flew in the general direction of the facility while he studied the holomap for the best approach. 

“So, why are you getting involved in this, anyway? Seems kind of low in importance to be of any interest to a sith.” Theron tried his very best to keep his voice nonchalant as the sith let him navigate unassisted, and instead slid his hands around Theron’s waist. The touching was probably meant to keep him off-balance, he knew, but it was still working. Theron needed to focus and clear his head.  


“I’m interested in someone who’s paying this organization a lot of money to stay anonymous in all their communications.”  


That was more than Theron had gotten so far, though he had only been on-planet for a handful of days. Not long enough to notice a sith working his way towards the same intel, apparently. Nor had any of the other agents or sources, or the damned Jedi involved in this mission, or if they had, they’d deemed Theron acceptable loss. Case in point - the sith knowing who he was.  


Another uncomfortable thing to navigate was the sith not bothering to hide his angle. Either he was planning to silence Theron as soon as he stopped being useful, or he had reason to believe Theron would be compliant.  


They drove in silence the rest of the way, and barely avoided colliding with a taxicab that looked like it had already survived a few crashes. It looked about as put together as Theron felt.  


“So,” Theron said, after coming to a stop, “this is as far as we can go unnoticed. See those security gates?”  


“I see them.” The sith kept his hands distractingly low on Theron’s abs and watched the gate in silence.  


“Uh, so? I’ve taken you to the right place.”  


“You’re coming with me.” The sith got off the speeder and pulled Theron up by his arm before he could fully process what was happening. “I wouldn’t want to be deprived of your company so soon,” the sith whispered, his face so close to Theron that his lips brushed Theron’s jaw as he turned towards their target. “I hope you’re ready for a few more explosions tonight, agent Shan.”  


Theron wasn’t, and he had two possible escape routes in his sights. He also felt a familiar feeling of curiosity spreading slowly through him like a slow acting poison, somehow radiating from the spot on his jaw that the sith had touched.  


He followed the sith into the night.  
 


End file.
